Reddit Tips: How to Use Reddit

Reddit isn’t for everybody – and that may be an understatement. The Reddit culture is challenging if you don’t have a thick skin or you have a low tolerance for profanity and misogyny.

Redditors are a tough crowd quick to vote you down or blast you in the comments. They often delight in banning you for the tiniest infraction of obscure rules – expecting you to be able to read their minds and know what they meant and how to conform there from your first plunge into the darkness that is Reddit.

Many a savvy social media lover has yanked their toe back out of the Reddit pool and left in search of calmer seas.

In Reddit Bermuda Triangle there are two different types of RedditGators waiting to prey on you: Redditors and Reddit bots. Read on to find out how to best navigate so that you have a better chance of surviving there.

MUST READ REDDIT TIPS:

If you don’t read anything else, be sure you read AND REMEMBER these important points:

Feel free to post links to your own content (within reason). But if that’s all you ever post, and it always seems to get voted down, take a good hard look in the mirror — you just might be a spammer. A widely-used rule-of-thumb is the 10:1 ratio, i.e. only 10% of your submissions should be your own content.

Some who have been banned claim they only shared ONCE and were banned for it – so share content you wrote or on a blog you’re associated with at your own risk.

Reddit FAQ says votes are not real. (More on that below.)

No matter how badly you want to know, DO NOT ask why you are being downvoted. Bots don’t answer that question I suspect almost all newbies want to ask – and neither will most Redditors.

REDDIT QUIRK: When sharing you either post a link OR start a discussion. You can’t add text in with your link EXCEPT for the title.

TITLE choice is critical to getting votes and attention. Study titles on submissions that went hot to get ideas for your own.

WHAT DO REDDITORS WANT?

Let’s start with what Redditors do NOT want:

“Reddit hates people who only submit their own content, and they also take a strong stance against what they believe is “gaming the system” by using Reddit simply to get visitors to your blog.” ~ Gregory Chiotti

Redditors are NOT blogger fans and most of us are fortunate if we aren’t already banned there!

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you learn as much as possible before going for a swim ~ and wear your thickest skin.

IS REDDIT WORTHWHILE?

Success on Reddit really depends on your niche, how you present your post, and a little bit of great timing.

When pitching to Reddit, remember that you are dealing with one of the toughest crowds on the net.

Your post might get a few nasty comments, it may even totally flop the first time around.

If, however, you follow the advice above and really start to understand what Redditors are looking for (something that is insanely informative or entertaining), you can reach the front page of a bigger subreddit.

And when that happens, you’ll start to realize Reddit’s potential, as thousands of new visitors check out your site from a single post.”

So your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out how what you create that is insanely informative or entertaining can get onto Reddit without you sharing – or even voting on it – yourself.

Ironically, we learned the most about Reddit from this Does Intelligentsia own /r/coffee? thread. The light started to go on that there were some people who consider themselves experts and you better not post anything you couldn’t back up…

…But I’ve noticed that many there remind me of my Father whose attitude was:

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion – but if yours did not agree with his you were an idiot.”

Honest Opinion From a Redditor

“Reddit as a website is probably the best for getting content from the internet. However, as a community, Reddit is terrible.

If you hold a minority opinion on Reddit eg. being religious, being conservative… you will be ostracized and ridiculed. Of course there are reasonable people on Reddit. However, for every one of these people there are four pretentious redditors.”

MICROCOSM – MACROCOSM

Reddit is a reflection of the physical world – a patriarchal, misogynistic men’s club – and proud of it – where the only women who fit in either join them in their derision of others or – ala Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, or Mae West – rise above it to either ignore or toy with them.

REDDIT DOWNVOTES

I highly recommend reading that entire thread for insights into why Reddit is Reddit, but here is the most pertinent quote:

Unwritten Reddit rule #1: Downvotes are downvotes. Just get over them. They’re meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Asking … about them is most often a waste of your time and bandwidth, and considered by many to be in bad form. Just like those who mis-use the vote.

Personally I kinda regard downvotes as proof that I’m a sincere participant who is true to my beliefs. Want to avoid downvotes? Don’t take a firm stand on anything. ~ Seeda_Boo ~

REDDIT VOTES

Votes on Reddit submissions DO mean what most assume a vote would mean – but votes on comments DO NOT.

Confused yet? It appears many Redditors regardless of time on site have never read or maybe read but did not understand or choose to follow this Reddit Help Voting FAQ:

“On reddit your vote means, “I found this interesting,” not “This should go on the front page.”

“Once registered, you can vote all links on reddit up or down based on whether you liked or disliked them. If more people like a link than dislike it, it will rise up the hot page and be seen by more users. Upon voting, the highlighted score will have changed +1 or -1 depending on your vote up or down, respectively. Regardless of individual karmas, all votes affect submission scores equally.

As a general rule, vote up what you liked (and want to see more of) and vote down what you disliked (and don’t want to see similar things in the future) — there’s really not much else to it.

The community is pretty vigilant about voting down submissions that shamelessly linkjack original sources (don’t say that we didn’t warn you)”

REDDIT COMMENT VOTING

While the same rules generally apply to voting on the comments of others, reddiquette states that downvotes should be used for irrelevant comments, not ideas you disagree with.

Also, don’t be afraid to upvote a comment you disagree with if you think it is furthering the discussion. This will result in the most interesting and relevant discussions moving to the top of the comment page.

REDDIT DOWNVOTE BOTS

I noticed something interesting on Reddit. If you refresh a page the votes change with each refresh. Knowing that it is not people voting you down should provide some small comfort.

That led me to find this Reddit FAQ on How is a submission’s score determined?

“A submission’s score is simply the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes. If five users like the submission and three users don’t it will have a score of 2. Please note that the vote numbers are not “real” numbers, they have been “fuzzed” to prevent spam bots etc. So taking the above example, if five users upvoted the submission, and three users downvote it, the upvote/downvote numbers may say 23 upvotes and 21 downvotes, or 12 upvotes, and 10 downvotes. The points score is correct, but the vote totals are “fuzzed”. We also shower certain posts that get upvotes quickly after being posted with many upvotes. If your post does not accumulate enough upvotes in the time we have allocated, it will certainly fall to its doom on page 471 of /new. So make sure to have a very shallow gripping title that only barely reflects its content.”

In the Minecraft forum debate between those who love Reddit and those who hate it, Homem Pigman wrote:

“You do know that 90% of the downvotes are added by moderation to maintain balance between the new and old posts, right? When you see something is downvoted a lot, it’s the bots who do it.”

“So they have to game their own system? They have to manipulate their own censorship in order to fit with their views? That’s hilarious.”

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T FIT IN…

So why do people keep trying? For the traffic – which can be enormous IF you can get past the Reddigaters – and the brilliant discussions to be had once you find a sub-reddit among the 1000s where you can shine.

We decided what was needed was a guide through the whitewaters of Reddit. Asking around, we found a likely candidate:

WHAT IS REDDIT LIKE?

Reddit is like a call in radio show with random callers. You never know who will comment or what they will say, so be prepared for anything and don’t stress out when the comments are totally different than what you expected.

You will be reminded of how very different the Reddit audience is on a regular basis. What is really weird dessert to you may be totally commonplace for the international crowd that inhabits Reddit.

HOW-TO REDDIT TIPS

Maxwell agreed to provide these helpful tips and answer some of our questions:

Generally you add a few subreddits (if you haven’t already) that you like to those big default subreddits in your front page so you are in touch with the big ones initially before you unsubscribe to those subreddit you have absolutely no interest whatsover. You slowly substitute them with those you wish to participate or at least like to read their comments even if you don’t actively participate. (I do that a lot – read comments and vote on them even if I don’t comment myself.)

If you have a particular set of skills or interests that you would like to share with others then seek out those subreddits (there are thousands of them!) and post a few links and/or comments.

Over time your front page will consist only of choice subreddits that you desire as you fine-tune your preferences. Some people stay out of default (huge) subreddits altogether while others (like myself) use them a lot – peppered with a selection of small to medium size subreddits for certain interests e.g. civil liberties, data privacy, privacy, IP etc.

If your objective is sharing with like-minded people then stay in small to medium subreddits and enjoy your comment exchanges and knowledge-sharing.

But if you wish to also garner link and comment karma – you will need the large subreddits.

But be forewarned that in these large subreddits the wide variety of subjects and the large audience will mean that someone somewhere will troll and upset you. That’s the Internet for you.

If you are are a tad sensitive then stick to posting links in smaller subreddits for comments first and build up some experience.

It’s better to have a mix of subreddits on your front-page so you get a wider span of topics to choose from since the news can come in quite fast and disappear within a day before resurfacing a day or two later in some specialised subreddit where the audience’s composition is a lot different. But that is ok since some media do better research than others so posting similar news item of interest from reputable sources is a good thing.

REDDIT TIPS

Mayonesa, a friendly Redditor whose sub-reddit is r/new_right, responded to my message with these tips:

“Hey, I’ve gotten upvotes ragging on the French Press in this sub. All you have to do is start with “I don’t know why everybody in this sub loves ______ so much.” Once loving that thing is established as conformism, redditors will clamor to establish themselves as independent thinkers.”

WHAT CONTENT WORKS BEST ON REDDIT?

Remember that Gregory Chiotti said, “Redditors are looking for (something that is insanely informative or entertaining)”? BUT – and this is a BIG BUT – consider the audience there.

Your “insanely informative” entertaining content needs to be 30 seconds long and appropriate for people who think like tweenage boys stuck in puberty – or raunchy, violent or perverted if you can swing that way.

Unless you become accepted in an intellectual Sub-Reddit of people who agree with you, your content will need to appeal to the masses – the lowest common denominator. You could start your own, but if you want to drive traffic you have to be where the RedditGators are.

Short works best even with intelligent people, as this further advice from maxwellhill explains:

“Substantiate a good post with one or at most 2 decent references and then surround these with you own narrative of choice. A video might help but only 1. Redditors can’t comment on the main topic if there so many referenced articles in the blog that it switches people off (for me at least). IMHO generally more is less.”

In other words, a really short post featuring a 30 second animated cartoon video and a cartoon image of the RedditGator would have a much better chance of getting to the first page of Reddit than a comprehensive post like this one.

BEST TIME TO SHARE TO REDDIT

Here are some suggestions we’ve gathered on the best time to share on Reddit:

“Just before work on the weekdays, 8:30am-9:00am Just after work on the weekdays, 4:00pm-6:00pm Sunday afternoon 2:00pm – 5:00pmSome people say Thursdays are really good and some people say Tuesdays are really good. But the best way to figure this out is check your own statistics. 46.5% of visitors to Reddit are from the United States. So these are the times I am referring to, USA times. But saying that if you are trying to reach United Kingdom users with your post then post during UK times.” ~ HunchMag from A Guide to Reddit Etiquette And How To Get More Upvotes on Reddit

ADVERTISE ON REDDIT

If getting traffic is your goal you should seriously consider testing the self-serve ads on Reddit. First read these posts by people who have seen excellent results to find out what worked best and how to get the most people for your pennies:

REDDIT GIFTS

REDDIT BANS

Reddit has a love-hate relationship with those who venture into those Redditgator infested waters. One share and you could be swallowed alive and spit out on a deserted island – never to see the shores of Reddit as your favorite username again.

Click the I Banned YOU From Reddit.com image above to read a round-up of articles written by people banned from Reddit compiled by JapanNewsToday

GHOST BANNED FROM REDDIT

What especially outrages banned would-be Redditors is how Reddit wasted their time because they thought they were sharing – but later figured out they were actually GHOST BANNED FROM REDDIT.

Reddit’s system does not lock you out – it just hides everything you do from anyone but you.

Being banned is the other major issue – and Reddit has no sympathy at all. So if you have a username you’re very fond of you may not want to use it on Reddit until you think you have the hang of it lest it be banned forever from a mistake you make – or for no reason at all.

It really would be wise of Reddit to create an appeals process for ban reconsideration.

There is no shortage of posts and forum threads with debates raging between those who love Reddit and those who hate it.

Best known as an advocate for small business who builds Blogging Collaborations and as a Twitter Expert @GrowMap. Gail is passionate about building collaborations of bloggers interested in supporting small businesses and creating a better world for all. Follow her on Google+

There is actually more we need to know than what is in this post alone – such as how to find the best sub-reddits. I use the posts I write for future reference, so anything I left out of this I would not be able to use to refresh my memory if I don’t use Reddit for a while.

Those who only read a summary may miss important points that end up getting them permanently banned.

[…] Reddit is not for the faint of heart, but if you can handle it and your content hits the first page there it can stay on the first page at Google for a really long time. Before you try it you really need to know the score there. Start with my Reddit Tips: How to Use Reddit. […]

Personally, although I have had some excellent discussions on Reddit, unless someone has a really thick skin and ignores all the downvotes they are going to get that is not really the place for them. Quora is far more professional and respectful and Pinterest can be a lovely place to spend your time instead.

I do agree with all the ideas you have introduced to your post. They’re very convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too brief for beginners. May you please extend them a bit from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.

Hiya, I’m really glad I’ve found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish only about gossips and net and this is actually frustrating. A good web site with interesting content, that’s what I need. Thanks for keeping this web-site, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can’t find it.

Great post, I think you covered everything all the basic parts about posting to Reddit. I just don’t get why people don’t try to use Reddit more, I’ve asked hundreds of people and 50% of them have never even heard of the website!

I guess the less people do Reddit marketing, the better it will be for us who do.

Hello there. I’m afraid the answer to that question is more than one comment. However, we have several helpful categories on this blog and I know that there are articles that cover topics related to what you are asking. Please feel free to navigate through the site and read at your leisure.

[…] Reddit Tips: How to Use Reddit – DirJournal Local Search – If you hold a minority opinion on Reddit eg. being religious, being conservative… you will be ostracized and ridiculed. Of course there are reasonable people on Reddit. […]